Midtown Lunch

Found in the food court of Liberty Place, the smells from Cafe Spice Express practically waft down the elevators. I decided to break my usual rules by checking out this (gasp!) mall food court that is part of a (gasp!!) chain. After my meal at Bumblefish earlier this week, maybe I am a chain lover now?

There are several combo specials, the chicken entree and veggie entree plus naan and rice seemed perfect ($7.15). There are also combos with just veggie entrees and a 3 entree option. The entrees are laid out in a steam table for you to examine before you choose.

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As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Allie, the spice-head editor of A Food Coma.

Name: Allie

Age: 21

Occupation: Journalist

Where in Philly do you Work?: I’m working in South Jersey right now, but I still come to Philly four or five times a week. Did an internship in Old City earlier this year, which helped me get better acquainted with my (now) favorite city ever.

Favorite Kind of Food:I love Indian food and anything insanely spicy. Bring on the hottest dish you can make and I’ll probably still ask for Sriracha.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I have yet to find a food I truly hate – that’s saved for a few condiments, like horseradish or coleslaw.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Lunch carts at Drexel are awesome, though it always took me forever to get there. You honestly can’t go wrong with Honest Tom’s Taco Truck, which roams near 33rd and Arch or 18th and Vine, doling out amazing fish tacos and breakfast jawns (you can follow on Twitter @honesttoms).

Farmicia (15 2. 3rd Street) makes fantastic fresh salads. I particularly love the roasted beef and shaved fennel with feta and citrus dressing. The trio of cow, sheep and goat milk cheeses with fruit chutney is big enough to split, if you want something light.

National Mechanics across the road has a top notch veggie burger, only $5 during lunch hours.

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The 4th and latest incarnation of the Bumblefish mini-chain landed in Center City not too long ago. Bumblefish claims to be neo-Asian healthy fast food. The store front’s high energy logo caught my eye (though I only now noticed looking back at the picture that the store is in need of some shingle repair).

I was not intending on eating sushi. I was really wanting to try to green tea noodle salad, thinking it would resemble the Burmese appetizer that I love. But alas, they didn’t have it. In fact, they have never had it. Way to tease me, guys! And then I found out that none of the other noodle dishes were available that day! I could have totally gone for the Citrus Sesame Noodle with green spinach noodles.

So sushi it was…

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• Finally! Phoodie explains what happened to the This is Why You’re Fat website. I just don’t know if the spinoff will cut it [Phoodie]
• Meal Ticket is reporting that a bagel joint with a create your own cream cheese mix in option is in the works. If this is anything like the one in Manhattan, that could be pretty awesome [Meal Ticket]
• Hawk, why do you love fish cakes on your hot dogs so much? [Drawing for Food]
• I will be attending the Pickle Fest this weekend! Are you? [Meal Ticket]

McCormick and Schmick’s is a popular high end seafood chain. Prices are usually way over the $10 limit. MidtownLunch in NYC recently pointed out the $10 lunch special menu. Philly also has a $10 menu, but I am not extremely tempted by the menu options (though the fried shrimp wrap looks like it has potential). But the food deals during happy hour were worth trying out. McCormick’s happy hour time slots are kind of random, 3:30- 6 and 9:30 to close. Ending at 6 is really too early for most people who work all day. But, that super early start time means that a late lunch is totally do-able.

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